Wicketkeepers can make ideal vice captains: Kiran More

Former Indian wicketkeeper Kiran More is currently preoccupied with
the running of a cricket academy named after himself in Baroda. The
Kiran More-Alembic Cricket Academy was set up in 1997 with the support
of the pharmaceutical major, Alembic, which has its factory just
overlooking the sprawling ground housing the Academy. The South
Africans who warmed up here before their ODI against India at Baroda
earlier in the year did pronounce themselves happy with the practice
facilities. Thirty-eight year old More makes an appearance every
afternoon and oversees the workout of three separate batches of
teenaged enthusiasts who go about their jobs with a studied
seriousness of purpose. CricInfo caught up with More just before one
of these sessions got underway and India's most successful Test keeper
after Syed Kirmani, with 130 victims to his collection, was glad to
telescope his thoughts on a lot of matters.

Q: How did you actually take up wicketkeeping in the first place ?
Was it planned or was it by accident ?

A: It wasn't planned you know. Any youngster coming up always
has some natural ability. When you start with a tennis ball, you know
what you're good at. I found more thrill in wicketkeeping and I was
very good with the soft ball. One day I took a job with the hard ball
also and I found it very easy and very comfortable. The job is such
that you're involved in the game all the time. A youngster when he
starts playing cricket likes to be 100% involved. So that's when I
thought if I become a cricketer, I should be a wicketkeeper. It was a
thrill then but I never thought it's going to be so tough when I grow
up and play for India because wicketkeeping is really one of the
toughest jobs.

Q: You were selected to the Indian team at the age of 20 for the
1983 tour of the West Indies. Did it come as a surprise ?

A: It wasn't a surprise because I was doing very well in
domestic cricket. I'd played a lot of matches till 1983 and got a big
score against UP that year. I was also doing very well in local
cricket in Bombay. At that time the Times Shield was a very recognised
tournament in India. All the Test players used to play and I got a
hundred on debut against Nirlon. That's where it all started. Then I
played in the Deodhar & Duleep Trophy where I did very well. That's
why I got a break. Before that I was playing for India Under-19 from
1977 to 1980. Other youngsters were also there as wicketkeepers like
Sadanand Viswanath, Chandrakant Pandit and a lot of other cricketers
like Ravi Shastri, Gopal Sharma, Shivlal Yadav, Roger Binny, Kirti
Azad, Lalchand Rajput. We all were from one batch and attended 3-4 All
India camps. They found that we were a bunch of talented cricketers
and all of us went on to play for India. So definitely it was a very
good grooming of Indian cricket.

Q: You spent a long time in the team before actually playing your
first Test match. Did it serve as a learning experience ?

A: It turned out to be brilliant actually. I always feel
wicketkeepers should wait for their opportunity. In 1983 I came to the
Indian team and waited three years to make my Test debut. I played a
lot of matches against touring sides and toured with the Indian team.
That's where it helped me as a wicketkeeper. You have to wait for the
right time and you must have the experience behind you because it's a
very challenging and thankless job and takes a lot out of you.

Q: In fact your debut series in England was still your best, you
took 16 catches in three Tests. Was it difficult to adjust to the
conditions in England ?

A: I went to England for the first time in 1982 and played in
the Northern Lancashire league for a club called Barrow. That must
have helped me because I knew the conditions and up north in England
we used to have some of the coldest weather. I played after that also
for a couple of seasons in England and when I toured in 1986 that
definitely helped me because I had an experience of their weather.
Specially when you play league cricket, it's a different ball game
from international cricket. It's even tougher because in international
cricket, you get good wickets which are rolled while in league
cricket, the wickets are not rolled. I think we had an excellent side
in 1986, it was one of the best India ever had in the 80's. We were
winning all the county matches as well and we had a great tour there.
I also had one of the best tours, averaging 52 with the bat and taking
16 catches, so it was excellent for me.

Q: You were a gutsy batsman in Test cricket with several fifties to
your name but no century. Was that a bit of a disappointment ?

A: Yeah, it was a disappointment but I never had an opportunity
to go as a nightwatchman or to bat before the No.7 position because we
had such a good team overall. Kapil used to bat No.7 and Shastri used
to bat No.6 so I never had a chance to go up the order. By the time I
came in, the tail used to finish and we used to have only a couple of
batsmen who could bat with me. Most of the fifties I got, I was not
out. I had the ability to score a hundred but that's life, you know.

Q: Your best knock ?

A: I think in England in 1986, a couple of knocks I played were
very difficult ones. I had fifties in West Indies and Australia also
but I think the crucial one was in Karachi, when we were playing the
first Test match in Pakistan after a long time. We were struggling and
I got 58 not out and saved the follow-on. That was the best innings I
had because we drew the four Tests in Pakistan which was one of the
best results the Indian team had there.

Q: No wicketkeeper has captained India so far although you were
named vice captain for the tour of New Zealand in 1990. Do you think
it's too much of a burden for a wicketkeeper to combine the duties of
captaincy ?

A: Actually from the cricketing angle, it's always difficult to
be a wicketkeeper captain. There are many wicketkeepers who've done it
like Ian Healy and Adam Gilchrist just now. But Moin Khan is
struggling with his keeping. He is a good team-man and really works
hard but the keeping will definitely suffer because you're not able to
concentrate enough. The job is very tough, you've got to keep watching
the ball all the time and there's so much of pressure on you as the
captain. You've to watch the fielders, think about the bowling, face
up to the media plus you've to do the wicket keeping which needs your
involvement all the time. A batsman captain or bowler captain makes
more sense because they have the time. I think a wicketkeeper can be
an ideal vice captain because he's a big guide to the whole team. He
sees the wicket, the movement in the air, and what sort of line the
bowler is bowling. The wicket changes every day if you're playing a
Test match and the keeper is the only person who's always close to it.
He knows which end is turning more, which are the rough areas on the
wicket and so on.

Q: Which are the dismissals you cherish the most ?

A: Martin Crowe in New Zealand in the 1992 World Cup and David
Gower in England (in 1990), these two dismissals showed the alertness
of the wicket keeper, how he has to be 100% involved in the game all
the time. You may get them once in a 100 times or a 1000 times but you
have to keep trying and it was my day. [I interject: I remember the
Crowe run out. You were throwing blind with your back to the wicket].
Yeah correct. I must have tried so many times to get that kind of
dismissal in domestic cricket but that day it clicked and I got him
out. Gower also was run out. I picked up the ball and threw it to the
non-striker's end. He was not aware at all.

Q: There was also one that escaped you when Graham Gooch was making
333. You missed a catch early on [off Sanjeev Sharma when Gooch was
36]. Do you remember it ?

A: Yeah, I don't think there's any wicket keeper in the world
who's not dropped catches. You drop some catches, take some catches,
but as a keeper I always believe that you should not avoid catches.
It's not done in cricket. Sometimes it sticks and sometimes it doesn't
stick. I think it was my bad day and I dropped him and he scored 333
but in the next match, I took a brilliant catch off him. It's part of
life, a part of cricket. I never felt bad about it but it's always
there in your mind.

Q: What about the incident with Javed Miandad in the World Cup ?

A: It was a pressure game and we were doing very well. We
scored 200 plus runs. An India-Pakistan game is always competitive. He
tried to imitate me and there were a few verbal exchanges. I also gave
him back to him. It's always a tough game. Because of TV I think it
looks big and it was quite popular worldwide. I thought he was very
close to being caught down the legside off Sachin's bowling. That's
when I appealed and he did not like it but if you see the action
replay of the catch, I think he was out caught behind. But I rate him
one of the best batsmen I've ever come across. He plays for his team
110%, that's how you have to play for your country, and I also give
110% for my country. I've got very high regard for him. After the end
of the day's play we were friends together and went out for dinner.
He's quite a friendly person and I have nothing against him at all.

Q: There have been a lot of keepers tried in the last season but no
one has really clicked. Why ?

A: I think basically we never groomed any wicketkeeper. Lately
if you see, there's a trend that only one wicketkeeper is taken on a
tour while according to me, they should take two and groom the other
keeper. Otherwise it becomes a big gap between the first keeper and
the next keeper. I think hopefully we should get wicketkeepers in 1-2
years time. There are a few youngsters coming up really well and there
should not be any problem at all.

Q: Who do you think is the best keeper in India right now ?

A: I haven't seen much but we have one Milap Mewada in Baroda.
I think he's very outstanding. He played for India Under-19 as well.
The only thing is he's not getting opportunities because Nayan is the
No.1 wicketkeeper for Baroda and is still good enough to play for
India. This fellow's waiting, I think he's experienced now. I've been
watching him for the last 10-15 years, he's really doing well in
domestic cricket for Baroda and hopefully we'll hear a lot about him.

Q: What were the circumstances in which you began your involvement
with coaching ?

A: I wanted to give something back to cricket, specially for
Baroda, basically to give a systemised coaching for youngsters. I've
travelled so much, seen a lot of academies in Australia, England. We
follow basically the Australian Cricket Academy system and I have a
lot of material from them. Overall I've got a lot of experience about
coaching and I find the job very interesting. Specially in India, we
have a lot of talent but the system should work properly. We have a
coaching system here, but it's not quality coaching, it's quantity.
Boys go to coaching classes for 5-6 hours, that's not done. If you
have five balls and 25-30 boys practising, I don't think it'll work.
The boys are wasting their time just standing there and talking. But
if you give them 15-20 balls, if each boy has a ball, they can take
100 catches in an hours time. So quality coaching is basically making
them practise more in a shorter time. You also have to make them play
more matches because there's nothing like match experience. Fitness
too is very important for the game now because it's become more
competitive, more aggressive and more physical as well.

Q: What's the general routine you follow and who are the promising
youngsters here you think can come up in a big way ?

A: We have about 60 boys overall and we're concentrating more
on the 16-18 age group. In the morning we have one batch and in the
afternoon we have about three batches. I come here in the afternoon
while in the morning we have another coach who looks after the
youngsters. There are a lot of boys here playing for Baroda Under-19,
Under-14 and Under -16 but it'll take some time, overnight success is
not going to come. It'll take five, ten, fifteen years. You have to
give them all the guidance, all the opportunities, all the facilities
and it's up to them to perform and give 100%. The educational system
has become very tough, so you have to be careful about that also
because the boys should not suffer. Cricketers don't get jobs very
easily these days. In India domestic cricket doesn't give you anything
back. So if you don't play a good class of cricket, you have to
concentrate on your studies also alongside. There are a few boys
coming up like Kunal Pandya who's a left handed batsman, Hrishikesh
Parab, Chandolkar, Irfan Pathan who's played for Baroda in the Ranji
Trophy and Shekhar Joshi who's a fast bowler. They're all very
outstanding cricketers.

Q: Any other plans on the anvil ?

A: I'm doing a lot of coaching for the ICC Development
Programme. It's a specialised wicketkeeping job and I'm busy with that
as well, travelling out of the country. I went to Bangladesh and I
will be going to Kenya and Uganda. It's working very well and I'm
enjoying my specialised wicketkeeping duties, it'll be great to bring
up some wicketkeepers from other countries as well.